"As the morning mist rises slowly from Shades Valley...
The tall stacks of [the abandoned Sloss Furnace] emit no smoke;
gone is the hot-orange molten iron pouring into waiting sand molds,
a remembrance for four generations of Jefferson County residents.
To the west lies the city, the new city of the New South, Birmingham,
a 'Magic City' that rose from a cornfield upon a foundation of iron andsteel... Birmingham, which survived depressions and racial violence,
is today a city of concrete and steel pillars shooting heavenward from
the valley floor, its modern cubes of multi-storied mirrored glass
reflecting the sunrise back into the green hills and the red mountain."

As of the 2000 census, Birmingham's population is estimated at 242,820 people (8.7% lower than in 1990) and accounts for approximately 5.5% of Alabama's population as a whole. Among Birmingham residents, approximately 46% are men and 54% are women, with the median age hovering around 34 years old. Additional statistics you might find interesting: